Canadian Association ofJournalistsNational Conference2003

Chrysalis Group
Laura Thanasse
Managing Director

You Gotta Love The Business

“The reporter remains for the most part an ill-paid, anonymous drudge, lured into the work by the promise of excitement and distinction…”
Silas Bent in Ballyhoo

Show Us The Money

• Journalism salaries are still low relative to other occupations requiring comparable knowledge, skill and effort
  • Journalism, unlike other fields, is often perceived of as a “calling”
  • People are willing to work for free for the reward of recognition
• Money is listed as the second top reason journalists leave the profession, right behind staffing cuts
  • In recent years, increases for journalists’ salaries has outpaced many occupations, even computer specialists
  • Gap between other professions is still large though because of relatively low starting point

What Is the Future For New Grads?

• New journalists are more educated than any previous group of journalists, yet they are among the lowest paid of any college/university educated workers
• Starting graduates can expect to earn about half of what a chemical engineering graduate would earn and less than a third of what a MBA graduate could expect
• Betty Medsger, author of 1996 study on journalism compensation in the U.S. concluded that “many new journalists would improve their economic situation by becoming waiters and waitresses”

Variation in Compensation

• Geographical differences in salary can be considerable in private or publicly traded organizations
  • Organizations in smaller cities often lack the ability to pay higher salaries, especially for radio and newspapers
  • Geographical differentials appear to more prevalent in print media
  • The differential often does not cover the higher cost of living in major cities
• Salary gap between the high and low paid continues to grow
  • Organizations are willing to pay for top talent / stars that can drive ratings and readership
  • Name recognition = higher salary
  • And looks don’t hurt either

Unionization Has an Impact

• Unionization has increased the starting salaries for entry-level positions. However, it has reduced the pay differentiation among journalists, who tend to be grouped together in common, broad job categories
• Harmonization results in less pay differential, with less ultimate earning potential
• Very few professions are unionized; keeping in a union results in journalism being viewed as more of a quasi-profession
  
  But so does public perception:
• Public believes that truth should be free: why should I have to pay to learn the truth
• Society fails to attach a value to journalism, like many other occupations
  Willing to pay high salaries for sports and entertainment, but not for advancing the public good

Alternative Career Paths

• Limited upward mobility due media convergence and emergence of flatter organizations:
  • Less management positions available with more competition
• Journalism teaches key skills that can be adapted to other career paths:
  • Thinking and judgment
  • Gathering, organizing and presenting information
  • Professional values of truth, accuracy and fairness
• Alternate careers include: advertising, public relations, internal communications, government lobbying, marketing, law:

“Journalism majors know that going into newswork is not the most lucrative thing one can do with the skills learned in a journalism program”
Lee Becker
University of Georgia

Yellow-shaded salaries offer highest income potential longer-term